


Effort

by DragonWhiskers



Series: The Things We Crave [11]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M, Force Training, Playing with balls, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-20
Updated: 2016-02-20
Packaged: 2018-05-22 00:29:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6063871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonWhiskers/pseuds/DragonWhiskers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kylo deals with disappointment better then we all expect, so does Snoke. Rey on the other hand is getting impatient and tried to jump ahead in her training.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Effort

Standing atop the windswept rocky mountain temple, Kylo wanted to scream.

Skywalker was nowhere to be found on this accursed waterlogged planet. He had been warned and evacuated before they had arrived. His knights were out there now, searching the surrounding systems, trying to find some trace of where Skywalker had fled to. Looking out over the ocean view, Kylo wondered just what had Skywalker wanted to find here? The first Jedi Temple was nothing more than a few barren rooms damp with mold and filled with old memories that offered nothing for the present. He had searched each room, seeing signs that Luke had scratched out a hermit’s life here, finding his food stores, his monk-like room. There was evidence he had left in haste. Perhaps they were not so far behind him as Kylo feared. The Resistance must have dispatched someone to Luke not soon after Starkiller Base had been compromised.

Maybe he should bring Rey down here to the surface. She’d be overjoyed to see a real ocean.

_Where the hell had that thought come from?_

Kylo looked out at the water and then back to the stone megalith behind him. The prevailing peace and serenity of the first Jedi temple tugged at his mind, the light trying to worm its way into him heart, trying to rob him of his rage and hatred. He didn’t need to deal with this now. He stormed back to his shuttle, leaving the feeling of the wind and the sun behind him.

***

The following meeting with his Master had not been as bad as Kylo had feared. True, Snoke had been disappointed at Skywalker’s aviation, he did note that it was not for lack of effort on Kylo’s part. He was following orders, just as Snoke had bid him, despite the general’s insistence the girl was being a distraction. Snoke only smiled a terrible and ugly smile at Hux and said to Kylo, they would halt in their search, as Skywalker would have most likely rejoined the Resistance. They would now concentrate their efforts on location the Resistance. The latest intelligence had brought in it was somewhere in the Ileenium system.

After Hux had been dismissed, Snoke did inquire about the girl.

“She is showing much promise, my lord. I would be most pleased to give you full report on her progress once we have the matter of the Resistance settled,” Kylo gave a low bow to the holo of his master.

“Is she a distraction, my pupil?” Snoke’s question was light, but Kylo felt the weight behind it and weighed his words carefully. “I have found her to be engaging and eager to learn. I have had her training with my fellow knights to test her skills. While she doesn’t win every match, she has bested the majority of them in sparring,” he paused, “I do not feel she is a distraction, more of a potential asset,” he replied hoping to have not crossed any lines with his assessment.

Snoke seemed to ponder his words, “And why do you feel the General keeps pressing the issue over the female?” he rumbled.

“She seems more of a distraction to the general, seeing as I have her firmly in my hand and he only has his imagination,” Kylo tried to keep the heat out of his voice, but it had crept in there around the edges.

Snoke smiled again and even gave a rare rueful sound that passed for a harsh laugh, “I feel her growing each day within the Force. You are doing well my apprentice, the pace you are setting is right and she will eventually make an excellent addition to the Knights of Ren. I will be pleased to speak of this again, after we had dealt with the Resistance and Skywalker,”

Kylo understood the dismissal and bowed to his Master before departing.

Still dealing with the rage over being robbed of the confrontation with Skywalker, yet muted by the praise from his Master, Kylo head back to his quarters to meditate now what to do next. What he found there was Rey trying to levitate one of her boots.

Sitting in the middle of the room, staring at the boot as if she was trying to boar a hole into it with her eyes, one hand outstretched towards it. The image was so absurd that it knocked him clean out of his foul mood. Before he could even say a word, she managed to make the boot wobble a bit. Kylo swallowed the laughter that was tickling the back of his throat at the sight. _I guess it’s time to start with the next level of training._ He couldn’t keep a straight face as he approached her, but he wasn’t going to laugh at her either.

She glanced up at him and then back to the boot. “Ok, what am I doing wrong?” She sounded frustrated at the apparent lack of movement.

“Well, are you trying to make it dance or burst into flames?” He was really trying to keep his tone even, but the laughter was still threatening to slip out.

She gave him a glare that might have set him on fire if she could have, but said, “I was trying to lift it, like I’ve seen you do in the sparring sessions with the other knights. I've felt what you did, I just can’t seem to replicate it!” She was so frustrated that she smacked her fist onto her thigh. Kylo eyed the spot she had hit, wondering what color the bruise would be in a few days.

“Alright, stay there, let me get something from my room,” He walked into his room reaching for the small metal training spheres he had kept from his youth. They were small enough to fit two in palm of his hand, but one would be enough for Rey to start with. He walked back out to find that she had replaced her boot back on her foot, but was still sitting in the center of the lowered floor. Kylo folded his long body in on himself as he sat down in front of her.

“Here,” he placed one of the spheres in her hand. “Now open your mind up and I will do the same,” she gave him a suspicious look, she wasn’t sure about sharing her mind again. Kylo just relaxed and blanked his mind. She really didn’t need to know that he could slip into her mind unnoticed at will now, he was so attuned to her. As he waited, Kylo levitated the sphere in his hand, while giving her the time to decide on her own what she would do. He knew there was no decision after she had watched the sphere turn and twist in the air inches above his palm.

She huffed out a breath and stilled her body. Slowly Kylo felt her dropping her guard, what she thought were shields in her mind. He, again, willed his mind blank and waited for her to reach out to him. Rey, did after what seemed like an eternity, but slowly he felt her there, in his head. He smiled at her then, “So to lift something with the Force, it is a matter of will. You have to feel the weight of it, without the worry of _can you_ lift it,” he looked down at the sphere back in the palm of his hand. He looked up at her and smiled softly.

“Feel the weight of it in your palm, feel how smooth it is,” he rolled it around a little to demonstrate the point. She mirrored him, wiggling her wrist a little to give the ball motion. “Now, feel the Force around you. Feel the Force as it moved around the sphere,” He shifted the Force around the metal ball, knowing she was monitoring his manipulations from inside his head. He wanted her to feel the machinates of how to manipulate the Force first hand, this way she would understand the level of control needed to do this. “You are not the one doing the lifting; that will be the Force. You use strength of will to lift it with the Force,” he demonstrated, causing the sphere to float, bob and rotate above his hand. He knew she was feeling what he was doing, but more importantly, she was feeling _how_ he was doing it.

Rey, stared at the floating ball above his hand and then looked back at the one in hers. She concentrated on the feel of the Force, felt the weight of the metal, and then she gave a hard jerk with the Force, causing the sphere to shoot out of her hand straight up till it hit the ceiling. She gasp and completely let go of it, staring wide eyed as it fell. Kylo reached out with his hand and catch it before it smacked her in the face on its descent. He just smiled down in to her startled face. _She has the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen._ He watched those eyes jerk from his hand to his face and then a deep blush spread across her cheeks.

For a moment he thought she was embarrassed about the ball, then he felt her still in his mind.

_Oh._

Well, he could either be embarrassed or he could let her see a little more of what he felt about her. Slowly he raised his empty hand up to hold hers as he replaced the sphere in her palm. He closed her fingers over the metal ball as he looked her in the eyes. “Good start, but a little more gently when practicing, alright,” Kylo lifted his right hand up to caress her still glowing cheek. He knew his eyes were heated as he looked over her face. As he stood up, he gently shut his mind away from her. It stunned her enough that she just stared at him as he walked over the table and began to see about their dinner.

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, just a little bit more to go and we'll be running in to full tilt smut. You have been warned.


End file.
